Meg is a passionate advocate for nature connection whose journey spans permaculture, herbal medicine, and regenerative agriculture, and her steps have made huge changes in her community. She shares how personal experiences, from her grandfather’s garden to community action during Melbourne’s challenging lockdown, shaped her purpose-driven path.
Her studies introduced her to the pioneering work in forest therapy in South Korea, leading her to FTHub training, now offered in Blended format in the bush near Melbourne. Meg met members of the team during the World Forum on Forest Therapy, that this year will be holding a new edition with FTHub participation as well (October 27-30, 2025) . In this interview, the creator of @earthseedOz elaborates on her career trajectory, her profound appreciation for FTHub, and her ambitious plans to continue bringing nature connection to Australia.
Connection to Nature
“Immediately I think about my grandfather, how much he appreciated his garden and passed on that sense of appreciation and well-being to me.He would always encourage me to pick rosemary every time I walked past it and crushed it up in my hands and smell.
“I was dabbling in the permaculture world for some time and had studied some western herbal medicine. I spent some time in the Himalayas in a place called Ladakh. I was there for 4 months helping with natural farming projects in remote villages with an organization called Local Futures.
“When I returned to Australia, it was the end of 2019. So coming into 2020, was a big turning point. In Melbourne, it was the longest and harshest lockdown in the world. This incredibly challenging time really activated me in terms of my connection to community and to nature. I was able to work with my local community garden to start a project where we were growing and distributing thousands of seedlings of vegetables and herbs to the local community. This was an incredible way to help keep both myself and others somewhat seen during this incredibly challenging time”.
“This was a real driving force. I guess it made me really see that that was the direction that I would like to go, in a very purpose- driven direction which is informed by my different studies and experiences. So that includes herbal medicine, horticulture community services and I’m just completing a bachelor of Science in Regenerative Agriculture“.
“The indigenous connection with the land and ways of knowing and being is a core unit in the degree, as well as an ecology, which is a lot of nature connection and things very prominent in the FTHub training as well. I’m trying to find my way to weave these different elements together, which are very complementary… spread the good word as far and wide as possible”.
Choose your Adventure
“My time in South Korea was part of my degree in Regenerative Agriculture and I spent one semester in Seoul. This is where I met Alex (Gesse, Executive Director and trainer) and a few of the FTHub crew. I was there last year, and one of the big driving forces for me going to Korea was hearing incredible things about forest therapy there and how they were leading the world in this realm. I was incredibly fortunate that the timing aligned with the very first World Forest Therapy conference. I was able to assist, helping the international delegation and presenting on therapeutic horticulture in Australia.”
“It was incredible to be immersed in the forest therapy world, seeing the facilities in Korea and meeting the many people it attracted. I learned about what was happening worldwide, which was incredibly inspiring. I could see that undertaking the training at FTHub would be a really valuable addition to what I’ve been doing and an opportunity to expand on that.”
“It’s an exciting field because it’s new and a bit of a ‘choose your own adventure’ situation. Of course, there are challenges in it being so new, but I think this is shifting and changing, and that’s why FTHub is so valuable. It fills a gap in my existing accreditations and trainings that just isn’t available elsewhere.
“A lot of work has gone into what has been created, with incredible collaborations I really value and respect. I see a lot happening for FTHub globally, which was really inspiring to hear about in Korea. That’s why I wanted to be part of the club.”
“I love and appreciate therapeutic horticulture, but I feel it forms a beautiful partnership with Forest Therapy and Forest Bathing, bringing those worlds together. That broadens the scope of the people who can be reached through this work. In Melbourne, people face their own challenges in terms of epidemics of loneliness, isolation, office life, and screen time. I look forward to bringing my learnings from FTHub into a few different areas, inspired by the people I met in forest therapy in Korea.”
Weaving Worlds
“I think it’s powerful to weave worlds together; these ones are such a natural complement to each other. It’s very exciting.”
“I will be speaking at the Outdoors Victoria conference, sharing my experiences. For foreigners in Korea, it’s very difficult to access these facilities, so I was fortunate, I was then able to get the full experience. Many people offer outdoor activities in Victoria and Australia, and I hope they benefit from learning more about Forest Therapy and how it could be incorporated into their work with different groups.. I hope to spread awareness and advocate for how powerful and important this work is.”
“It’ll include forest therapy and barefoot walking, which I absolutely fell in love with in Korea. In many public green spaces, there are specific barefoot walking trails. They’re incredible: well-maintained, with footwashing stations at the beginning and end. It was inspiring to see.”
“My big focus is advocacy and bringing more awareness to nature connection broadly, whether through ecotherapy, therapeutic horticulture, or, now through FTHub, forest therapy and forest bathing. Workshops for different groups and at festivals as well.”
Ph: Courtesy Meg Afauna
共同成长，掌握打造深度自然体验的核心技能。
